Concrete testing mold



CONCRETE TESTING MOLD Filed Augv. 25, 196.6

R Obert c. MPa/s y BQww PArg/vr AGL-yr v y /N VEA/ron United States Patent O ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A concrete testing mold which comprises a longitudinally slit main cylinder shell defining a longitudinal slit joint, a forked element provided along each margin of said slit joint and projecting towards each other such that the tines of one forked element tightly engage alternatively between the lines of the other forked ele-- ment to form an interdigitation over said slit joint, and a closing device which cooperates with said forked elements such as to hermetrically close the joint and positively align the opposite edges of the slit joint.

My invention relates to a mold for taking samples of concrete or cement on various job sites, such as road, bridge, dam, building Wharf and the life concrete-using projects.

The mold in accordance with my invention is much easier to hand-carry than most conventional metal molds in use, .and its main advantage resides in the fact that while it is itself a permanent mold, it does, when unmolding, protect almost perfectly the internal as wel-l as the external characteristics of the cement or concrete sample that has .been sampled off, keeping the original integrity of the sample.

The molds in actual use are made either from carton paper or from metal. Those which are made from cardboard have the drawback of being usable only once. The molds made from metal have a number of defects or limitations resulting mostly from their opening or closing mechanism. The metal cylindrical molds now in use have a longitudinal joint, both edges of which are terminated like dovetail profiles and both of them kept closed by a slip-lock metal tongue, itself having a dovetail profile which is slipped or slid along both edges of the cylinder joint. Obviously, that so-called slip-lock which is about twelve inches long does require an irnportant manual effort from the operation of the mold when the said mold is being closed and also when it is being open for unmolding.

Indeed, the mechanical effort required when unmolding has very often to be tremendously increased to break up the adherence of the hardened concrete or cement that has infiltrated itself through the joint, from the inner cylinder and that has cemented or `bound together the mold edge proper together with the slip-lock tongue.

In actual practice, very often, if not at each time, to unmold or release the inner hardened cement or concrete test cylinder, the operator has to hammer up the slip-lock tongue joint now in use to break up the aforementioned adherence.

The hammering referred to is liable to damage and/ or to alter the inner characteristics of the still fresh or lightly hardened concrete or cement sample to the extent that the ensuing rupturing or collapsing tests might give a false or wrong indication of the real value of the sample.

Moreover, the above hammering alluded to can also in the long run effect the geometry of the joint or its Water retention capacity to the extent that the most important water/cement ratio of the sample might `be altered so much that the breaking-point-test of the sam- "ice ple can be of no real objective value or signification, the test then being performed upon anything but the real original sample.

The new mechanism of opening and/ or of closing the main cylinder shell of the mold of my invention obviates the above-listed defects or limitations of the conventional cylinders and does constitute the main part of my invention. Firstly, in my new invention the closing or opening .mechanism of the joint of the main cylinder is no longer a slipping or sliding one; instead it includes a small diameter cam, which requires a very sma-ll manual effort on the part of the operator. Secondly, in my invention, means are provided to positively align the edges of the cylinder to form a liquid-tight-butt joint when the cylinder is closed.

The drawing attached herewith illustrates one embodiment of the invention, wherein:

FIGURES 1 and 2 are a plan view .and an elevation view of the mold in the open position;

FIGURES 3 and 4 are similar views showing the mold; and

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of an inner lining for the mold.

In the drawings, like reference characters indicate like elements throughout.

Basically, the invention is a hollow cylinder or shell 1, in this instance of metal the upper end of which being fully open and provided with a carrying handle 2 and the lower end of which being closed by a perfectly circular disc 3 of standard diameter, while the shell is slit longitudinally to form a longitudinal joint made up from two straight longitudinal edges 4 and 5 of the shell, the said straight edges 4, 5 4being stiifened .by two iron angles 6 and 7 secured to the outside of the cylinder and which in turn are positively moved closer to, or farther from, each other by a cylindrical cam 8, which is pivoted excentrically and is actuated by the manual lever 9.

The wings of the irons 6 and 7 which are tangential to the shell 1, are shaped or cut out in such a shape or outline as to constitute a certain number of interdigitated times .13 and 14, the role or use of which we shall explain hereinafter.

The straight edges 4 and 5 of the longitudinal shell joint as well as the iron angles 6 and 7 are upon closure or shutting of the mold positively drawn or forced one against the other, because the circular excentric cam 8, when being pivoted from left to right, presses its lateral surface against the radial wing of the angle iron 6, while at the same time cam `8 through the intermediary of tie rods 10 and nuts 11 draws to the left the right hand angle iron 7,

Tie rods 10 which are secured by nuts 11 to the radial wing of angle iron 7, freely pass through holes of the radial wing of angle iron 6 and are bent inwardly at their ends to serve as an excentric pivot for cam 8.

During the opening operation of the mold or cylinder, the operation of cam 8 is still positive, because, at that moment, cam 8, being pivoted to the left, is pressing against a radial stop plate 12 welded to shell 1 and, consequent-ly, causes positive movement to the right of tie rods 10 and of the right hand angle iron 7.

If desired, stop plate 12 may be dispensed with, in which case rotation of cam 8 will allow opening of shell 1 under the action of the resiliency of the latter provided by the selection of an inherently resilient material for the shell. The nuts 11 are mainly used as lock nuts but they also serve to adjust the effective length of the tie rods 10 in such a way that in closed position, the longitudinal butt joint `made by straight edges 4 and 5 of the cylinder is almost perfectly watertight.

The lining-up, the parallelism and the proper abutment of both straight edges 4 and 5 against each other are also positively guaranteed against any radial deviation and against any relative longitudinal movement by the presence of the above-mentioned tines 13 and 14.

Tines 13, which are integral parts of the angle iron 6, extend to the right beyond the longitudinal joint to overlap the marginal portion of straight edge 5, thus preventing edge from radially extending outwardly more than edge 4, while simultaneously tines 14, which are integral parts of the angle iron 7, extend to the left beyond the longitudinal joint to overlap the marginal portion of straight edge 4, thus preventing edge 4 from radially extending outwardly more than edge 5 itself. The edge overlapping of tines 14 and 15 is present even when shell 1 is in open position, as shown in FIGURE 2. Thus, the radial displacement inwardly or outwardly of any one straight edge of the joint with respect to its opposite straight edge is positively prevented by the presence and positive pressure of tines 13 and 14.

Because tines 13 and 14 fit one another with a small clearance and because their side edges 15 are parallel to the direction of opening and closing movement of shell 1, straight edges 4 and 5 are maintained parallel to each other in all their positions and are also prevented from moving relative to each other longitudinally thereof.

The bottom of the cylinder mold is defined by a removable circular metal disc 3, which is of the exact diameter as that of the standard cement or concrete test cylindrical sample. The thickness of said disc 3 is such that it combines with the inner surface of shell 1 to assure a joint which is amply satisfactory from a watertightness point of view when shell 1 is closed.

The lower perimeter of shell 1 is reinforced by an inner metal strip 16 which protects the disc-shell joint against mechanical shocks and against wear. The metal bottom disc is prevented from downward axial displacement by supports 17 which are spot-welded to the lower periphery of the cylinder shell and which are preferably part of Strip 16, being formed by bends in said strip in a sort of star pattern, said bends projecting radially inwardly of shell 1 and arranged such as to minimize to the utmost the resistance to the change of radial curvature of shell 1 when opening 0r closing the latter.

Supports 17 do have only the thickness of strip 16 perpendicular to the axis of the cylindrical mold and, therefore, they can only collect a very small amount of over ilowing concrete or cement during sampling.

In this connection, it should be noted that it is one of the many defects of the currently used cylindrical molds to collect cement or concrete between their bottom closure disc and the support for said disc.

The upper perimeter of shell 1 is also protected by a spotwelded external reinforcing strip 18 against any normal mechanical shock and against also any radially inward thrust exerted by the ends of handle 2.

To assist in minimizing the above-mentioned possible deformation due to the horizontal thrust of the ends of handle 2, the latter is made from heavy stock steel rod, or bar, that will not easily loose its shape under normal use.

The receiving sprockets for the carrying handle are not located at the extremeties of a diameter of shell 1, but rather at the ends of a chord offset towards the angle irons of the cam mechanism so as to maintain the shell 1 vertical when the latter is normally carried by its carrying handle 2 in order to prevent spilling of the contents of the freshly filled mold.

That offset location of the pivotal axis of the handle 2 is made necessary by the fact that the weight of the opening and closing mechanism of shell 1 is not symmetrically located above the long axis of said shell.

FIGURE 5 shows a piece 19 of vapor barrier material; for instance, plastic-coated paper adapted to be used as an inner lining for shell 1. Piece 19 fits exactly the inner surface of shell when the latter is in closed position so that edges 20, 21 of piece 19 will form a good butt joint.

Edges 20 and 21 are preferably provided with mating triangular projection 22 and notch 23 respectively to cause piece 19 to form a good cylindrical shape with its end edges in alignment.

Lining 19 does away with shell oiling for unmolding of the test sample and, by adhering to the latter, prevents evaporation losses and protects the sample up to the time of testing.

While a preferred embodiment in accordance with the invention has been illustrated and described, it is understood that various modications may be resorted to without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A sampling mold adapted for concrete and cement testing comprising a longitudinally slit cylindrical shell open at one end and closed at the other end, the longitudinal edges of said slit being spaced apart in the open position of said shell and abutting each other to form a butt joint in the closed position of said shell, means associated with each edge of said longitudinal slit and having guiding projections provided along each of said edges, the projections along one edge interengaging with the projections along the other edge, the ends of the projections along each edge of the slit overlapping the other edge on the other side of the slit such as to positively guide said edges relative to each other in the longitudinal and radial directions during the closing of the shell.

2. A mold as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means associ-ated with said edges comprises a member fixed adjacent each of said edges, said projections being provided along one edge of each of said members.

3. A sampling mold as claimed in claim 1, wherein said projections are tines which are arranged such that the tines of one member are interdigitated with the tines of the other member.

4. A sampling mold as claimed in claim 3, wherein said interdigitated tines have straight lateral edges which slidably interengage parallel to the direction of movement of the edges of said slit joint during opening and closing movement of the latter, so as to maintain the latter edges parallel to each other and to prevent the same from longitudinal and radial relative movements during opening and closing of the shell.

5. A sampling mold as claimed in claim 4, wherein said member fixed adjacent each edge of the slit joint, constitutes an angle iron having one flange extending tangentially and longitudinally on the cylindrical shell, said interdigitated tines forming integral parts of said one flange of each of said angle irons and extending over said slit joint, the other of the flanges of said angle irons being radially outwardly directed with respect to said shell and extending longitudinally thereof, a manually-operated closing mechanism including tie rods secured at one end to the radial flange of one of said angle irons and freely inserted through holes in the radial flange of the other angle iron, and a cylindrical cam member mounted substantially parallel to said radial flanges and excentrically pivoted on the other ends of said tie rods and adapted to engage with the radial flange of said other angle iron to bring together said radial ilanges and the edges of said slit joint to close said shell.

6. A sampling mold as claimed in claim 5, wherein said shell is made of a material having inherent resiliency such as to cause opening of said shell when said cylindrical cam is disengaged from contact with said other angle iron.

7. A sampling mold `as claimed in claim 5, wherein said tie rods are adjustably secured to the radial flange of said first-named angle iron.

8. A sampling mold as claimed in claim 5, wherein said cylindrical cam is provided with an actuating lever rigidly secured thereto.

9. A sampling mold as claimed in claim 5, further including an abutment plate secured to said shell and radially outwardly extending therefrom in spaced parallel relationship with said last-named radial llange, said cylindrical cam being positioned between said last-named radial flange yand said abutment 4plate and adapted to engage the latter for positive opening movement of the shell.

10. A sampling mold as claimed in claim 1, further including a U-shaped handle pivotally connected at its ends to the sides of said shell at points determined by the ends of a chordA extending substantially at right angle with the radial plane through the slit.

11. A sampling mold as claimed in claim 1, wherein the closed end is formed by a removable closure disc and an inner reinforcing strip applied to the inside face of said shell at the closed end thereof, said reinforcing strip forming circumferentially spaced radially inwardly directed triangular projections adapted to support said removable closure disc.

12. A sampling mold as claimed in claim 1, further including a reinforcing strip applied to the outside surface of said shell at the periphery thereof adjacent the open end of said shell. 2'

13. A sampling mold as claimed in claim 1, further including a lining of vapor-proof flexible material applied against the inside face of said shell, said lining being split longitudinally.:

`14. A sampling mold as claimed in claim 13, wherein the edges defining the slit of said lining have at least one V-shaped notch and .a mating triangular projection to positively align the end edges of said lining.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 826,181 7/ 1906 Melton 249-173 X 1,045,028 11/1912 Hicks 249-179` X 1,197,483 9/1916 Hauser 249-173 X 1,278,479 9/1918 Kellar 249-173 1,445,907 2/1923 Novy 249-49 1,512,198 10/ 1924 Clark 249-173 1,762,440 6/1930 Hawe 25-118.5 1,837,092 12/ 1931 Alinquist 249-173 2,677,165 5/ 1954 Copenhaver et al. 249-115 X 2,683,912 7/1954 Serrell 249-173 X 2,974,385 3 /1961 Leisenring 249-205 3,163,908 1/ 1965 Lawmaster.

3,176,053 3/ 1965 Stasio.

' FOREIGN PATENTS 971,201 12/ 1958 Germany.

I. HOWARD FLINT, IR., Primary Examiner. 

